8 Problems That Startups Are Lucky to Have
Starting a business is never as simple as you think. Businesses are increasingly diverse and countless metrics and variables need to come into effect for channels to work for the long term. Entrepreneurs and startups have to be smart and they need to be open to endless solutions. In fact, if you don’t think ahead, you can be buried in the success your business creates or possibly wrapped up in an endless supply of unforeseen work that can lead to dwindling profits.
All businesses face challenges in the beginning, but here are some "problems" facing startup entrepreneurs that might not be so bad after all:
1. Too Much Ambition
You need this. Are you starting a business so you can sleep in late or to create something real? Think long term and very smart, all the time.
2. The Industry Is Too Large
With luck your industry is a behemoth. Not that it has to be, it just helps when you're trying to capture revenue from a $250 billion global block. Competition is a good thing and should not detour potentials from setting up shop.
3. Too Much Information
What type of business it is? Are you revamping mobile payments or are you bidding on city garbage contracts? You can find information on both. On the latter, there will be competitors and neighboring businesses that you should be able to contact and discuss. You have to like learning. There's no such thing as a lazy entrepreneur.
4. Your Industry Needs Growth
Read forecasts and pay attention to industries. We are in a global world now, and global events change prices on commodities. Money is a necessity. If you don't want overhead, don't own transport buses. Maybe your industry is way behind, just make sure the business idea itself it not super easy to replicate (i.e., Groupon).
5. Too Few Professional Reqs
Remote workers? Why not. Make your office a large meeting and collaboration area. Overhead needs to be at a very low cost ratio. Maybe it's an eCommerce site. These are businesses of the future. To a degree, you may need accountants and staff accounts, but be creative and outsource what you can, when you can, so long as you don't lose quality.
6. Too Much Money
Holding out for revenue for five years only happens to a select few, and thankfully so. Take the startup scene of Chicago, for example. Many entrepreneurs are revenue-centric and place an early emphases on this. If you do the same, you'll be glad you did.
7. Too Many Skills
If revenue doesn't come early, you’ll still need funding. Ideas are cheap and often a red flag for the very beginning stages. If you have the skills, make it happen. You should be able to figure it out. Some of the most successful companies bootstrapped their finances and made it big. Maybe you need to ramp up one company while holding down another job.
8. Too Much Planning
You are obsessed and hyper-driven, checking your schedule at midnight to ensure efficiency and that you're on top of it. There’s a healthy balance to it all, but everyone knows that hard work at the onset leads to better peace of mind. While you can’t control everything, you can control what you know and how you act during the most important times. Common sense will always be your friend. Would you start a French M&A company in Kansas? Perhaps you would if there were a high density of French conglomerate owners. Market research is key, but more so when your thoughts are analytical, logical, and wide encompassing. If you are the one in charge, you have to be the one leading the way, and you have work to see what others miss.
